Yahoo Japan Recognizes Locals Might Know A Bit More About Local Info
from the about-time dept
In the ongoing effort by the various search players to better serve the "local" market, they all seem focused on building up huge databases of info that they go out and collect themselves -- including things like actual photos of entire streets in some cases. However, when it comes to local and map info, who knows better than the locals themselves? It appears that Yahoo Japan has finally recognized this fact and has added the ability for users to submit additional info or to correct maps if they find something wrong with them. Given the number of times we've seen stories about people being driven astray by bad online maps and bad directions, it would seem like a simple "this isn't correct" button would be great. For example, the data that all the big mapping services have (from NAVTEQ, I believe) that pinpoints my house has it in the wrong spot. It would be great if I could easily inform these mapping sites that they've pinpointed the neighbors around the corner as being my address -- but as it stands there's no easy way to do so. NAVTEQ has a web form for requesting changes, but it's fairly cumbersome and it requires people to go search out NAVTEQ's website, rather than directly from where they spot the error. However, in cases of just additional useful local info, letting locals fill in the data could be quite useful -- if there's a good way to verify that the info is legit.
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Internet Navigation booboo
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Lost in Space
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Been to Tokyo
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Re: Been to Tokyo
The less romantic version says that Tokyo was burnt to a lunar landscape during WW2, then rebuilt by land-claiming opportunists who staked arbitrary land claims. The land claims were settled by gangsters who sold their land-clearance services to the highest bidder, then much later the government "officially" approved the land claims.
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